For my studio class I had to write a manifesto. From the start, I was worried about this assignment. I always assumed that in order to write a manifesto you should be a consolidated artist, with lots of experience and with a clear vision of who you are, and who you want to be. This state of being is so far away from me – I barely know myself, nor can I confidently call myself an artist. At first it felt almost pretentious to write about life as if I have any idea about anything at all. But through class exercise, brainstorming and the drafting my manifesto I got more and more comfortable. I learned that my manifesto doesn’t need to be an absolute, formulated thing, I can always come back to it and change it, it can be personal and doesn’t necessarily need to be preachy.
Interestingly, each step of the way highlighted different parts of me: in class exercise it was all about love, what my close friends and family had to say about me was all about goodheartedness and strong sense of justice, my relatively new friends from New York mostly talked about humorous and artistic qualities and when I sat alone in front of my laptop at night, what came out of me was a lot of self doubt and uncertainty.
My first drafts were divided into two parts: who I am, and what I want to do. I had twenty rows on each segment which were carefully selected. And yet, it still looked more like a brainstorm than a manifesto. I decided to reduce it, tighten it until I get to some kind of a core truth that will represent me and guide me.
At last, I understood that the thing that has always compassed me was going back to myself as a child. I imagine myself as a kid, I guess somewhere between 8-16. Sometimes I go back to a specific moment, me in bed at my parents house, waking up from my dog licking my face. There’s no particular reason why this is the image I have, but there’s something very pure about that moment which sends me directly back to the past.
I firmly believe that children are the versions of ourselves before we got ruined by grown-ups reality. We saw things clearer, we were loyal to ourselves in a way no adult is. Whenever I’m lost, I talk to the younger version of me, and she always knows best, guides me through life, and lights my way. For me, this special connection is what I want to have as my manifesto.
I designed a shirt that will capture that childhood memory of mine, as a representation both of my personal experience and of a bigger idea, of connecting with the child within you. I love having a dog in my design. not only because its part of my memory, but because dogs, in my opinion, just like children, are sinless. I would like this shirt to remind me and the people around me, every once in a while, to look at ourselves from a point of view of a child, (or a dog) and let that be our guidance.
I worked with markers, which was a new technique for me, and I really loved it! It felt way more intuitive than I expected, and looked pretty good on the fabric. If I could, I would go back and choose another colour for my shirt, just because the markers’ colors looked different on my dark shirt than on white paper.
Presenting my shirt in front of the class made me feel exposed, but the environment was very accepting and respectful. I would definitely like to revisit with this project further on in the future, because I feel there’s always more to learn about yourself, being a dynamic, growing person.
For my tokens, I wanted to developing the idea of a pet dog, and the role it takes in your life, especially as a child.
I’ve design a short textless comic strip that captures little daily moments in life with your pet dog. The scenes were inspired by my own experiences.
I’ve chosen to use colors with a nostalgic feel, in order to evoke a sense of a childhood memory to the strip.
Stickers are such a childhood item for me, I remember collecting them and my room and notebooks were covered with dozens of colorful stickers. I’ve changed the pallete from one sticker to the other, so my peers could choose whichever pallete they relate to the most.
By adding grain and scratch effects to the illustration I aimed to make the sticker look old and used. I made them small to create a sense of intimacy, like a small photograph people keep in their wallets – a nostalgic charm.
I enjoyed reading my peer reviews because I always learn so much about myself through other people’s opinions. When I work hard on an art piece I gradually lose any sense of objectivity and I can’t really know what to think of my work, or how would other people will experience it.
My classmates wrote about my choice of an intimate subject such as a child memory, and it seems like many could relate to this idea of reflecting back on your past as a sort of compass.It was also interesting that a couple of the comments talked about the flatness of my style, a feature I never considered before when reflecting on my work. I really liked Max’s reference to old 14th century Dutch paintings, it was interesting to investigate in to that, and I aim to study this style more into depth.
Mostly what makes me happy is that people could actually relate to this personal experience I’ve decided to visualise in this work. It feels really special to share these thoughts and emotions with others through my art.
